Hosea 5 - Introduction
Interlacing descriptions of guilt and punishment... [ Continue Reading ]
Interlacing descriptions of guilt and punishment... [ Continue Reading ]
_O priests_ Hosea addresses the priests of the high places in N. Israel. _O house of the king_ i.e. the king and his courtiers, whether of the royal family or not. _judgment is toward you_ Rather, THE JUDGMENT IS FOR YOU. _a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor_ Tabor is the well-known mou... [ Continue Reading ]
A personal arraignment of the priesthood (accused less directly in chap. 4) and of the court, who, instead of warning the people, have led them into the snare of sin. So entangled are they in it that they cannot repent, and Judah too has fallen. They may seek to propitiate Jehovah by sacrifices, but... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the revolters are profound to make slaughter_ The expressions used have a most un-Hebraic cast, and what can the -slaughter" refer to? There is nothing at all in the context to suggest that the slaying of sacrifices is meant (as many after St Jerome have supposed), and it is very harsh to under... [ Continue Reading ]
_I know Israel_ The pronoun is expressed for emphasis, I who punish Israel am well acquainted with its open and secret sins.... [ Continue Reading ]
_They will not frame_ Rather, as in the margin, THEIR DOINGS WILL NOT SUFFER THEM TO TURN UNTO THEIR GOD. The same idea that from the meshes of an inveterate vicious habit there is hardly an escape is expressed in Hosea 7:2, comp. John 8:34; Romans 6:16. _the spirit of whoredoms_ See on Hosea 4:12.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face_ Rather, BUT … SHALL TESTIFY TO HIS FACE. -The pride of Israel" is capable of two interpretations. It may mean Israel's vainglorious self-confidence, which is so hateful to Jehovah, and as it were testifies against Israel on the day of Jehovah's assi... [ Continue Reading ]
_with their flocks and with their herds_ i.e., with their sacrificial offerings. This passage affords decisive proof (if indeed the converging evidence from other quarters can be held incomplete) that the Israelites of the north simply and in good faith professed to be worshippers of Jehovah. It wil... [ Continue Reading ]
Why Jehovah has withdrawn himself, _dealt treacherously_ i.e. faithlessly. The word is used of an adulteress, Jeremiah 3:20. _they have begotten strange children_ The subject of the verb are the Israelites individually, of whom the same statement is made which we have already met with respecting th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Blow ye the cornet … the trumpet_ A usual direction on the approach of an invading army; see Hosea 8:1; Jeremiah 4:5; Jeremiah 6:1. Previously to the captivity the cornet and the trumpet were probably different names for the same instrument, as the Law (Numbers 10:1-10; Numbers 31:6) prescribes the... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophet -in the spirit" sees the threatened trouble bursting upon both the separated kingdoms. In vain will Ephraim seek help from Assyria; there is no deliverance from Jehovah's hand until Ephraim repents.... [ Continue Reading ]
_rebuke_ Rather, PUNISHMENT, as the same word is rendered Psalms 149:7 A.V. -punishments upon the people(s)." The root meaning of the word is -judicial decision." _among the tribes of Israel_ i.e. Israel in its widest sense is the object of Hosea's denunciations. The phrase -the tribes of Israel",... [ Continue Reading ]
_were like them that remove the bound_ Rather, ARE BECOME LIKE THEM THAT REMOVE THE LANDMARK. The landmarks were under the protection of religion (Proverbs 22:28; Proverbs 23:10; Deuteronomy 19:14), and to remove them laid the offender under a curse, according to Deuteronomy 27:17. Hosea cites the o... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment_ The same two participles are again combined in Deuteronomy 28:33, and, as here, in connexion with invasion, -thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway" (so Auth. Vers.). The judgment meant is God's. The idea was so familiar that a more distinct form... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore will I be_ Rather, AND AS FOR ME, I AM, &c. The same two figures are of frequent occurrence; they are combined again in Job 13:28. A gradual inward corruption was destroying the two Israelitish states quite as effectually as a foreign conquest. Anarchy and civil war combined with a retrog... [ Continue Reading ]
Both states are conscious of the destroying cancer, but neither of them adopts the only possible means of arresting its progress. _his sickness … his wound_ The ordinary figure for corruption of the body politic; comp. Isaiah 1:5-6; Jeremiah 30:12-13. _and sent to king Jareb_ Some have thought that... [ Continue Reading ]
If a stronger figure is necessary to warn Israel of the destructiveness of his present course, Jehovah will compare himself to a lion (comp. Isaiah 31:4). _as a lion, and as a young lion_ Hebrew has at least five words for -lion"; of the two selected here, the first describes this terror of ancient... [ Continue Reading ]
_return to my place_ See Micah 1:3, from which it is clear that Jehovah's -place" is the heavenly temple (Isaiah 6:1). Now that Jehovah has for a time deserted his guilty people, he will return to his seat on high, and watch (Isaiah 18:4) the doings of men. He has full confidence that Israel on his... [ Continue Reading ]